I am ditching what we tried for LA and in need of something for my K and 2nd grader. We do Classical Conversations, but it just touches LA.

I am kind of looking at both of these. Although Rod and Staff doesn't have K. We used McRuffy for my oldest in K and I liked that it really seemed to cover everything.....we did the whole curriculum and it was a little too repetitive for us, just the same set up for everything. Wouldn't be such a problem if we just did the LA.

My 2nd grader, looking for LA too. I have a friend that uses Rod and Staff and loves. We do AAS with him, just started level 1. I am not opposed to stopping AAS if we find something to cover it all.

I am not positive what all you are including in language arts, but will share what we do. Fr kindergarten/learning to read, we use Sing, Spell, Read, and Write level 1. After that, we do Rod and Staff phonics for levels 1 and 2. We do that because I have never seen a program as thorough in their phonics. This has not only helped my kids be crazy good readers, but has allowed us to skip spelling. We do not do a formal reading program until 3rd grade. Before then, we simply read together and I ask questions to make sure they are understanding what we are reading, and we work on their ability to read aloud. We also do not do formal grammar before 3rd grade. We do MadLibs, which introduces them to the basic parts of speech. As they write notes or work on phonics, we casually talk about sentence structure and capitalization and basic punctuation. Starting in 3rd grade, we use Rod and Staff English because it is so thorough. That is also when we start a more formal reading. We have used several things for reading over the years. Our oldest started with Learning Adventures, which is a unit study. Our son used Rod and Staff the first couple of years, and our youngest is to yet there. We switched our oldest to Progeny Press last year because past 5th grade, we didnt care so much for the Rod and Staff reading, and our son joined her on Progeny Press this year. I gave him the choice. I will probably give our youngest a choice, as well, but she is only 1st grade this year, so we will see.

We are doing R&S 1st grade this year, after A Beka kindergarten last year. I seriously considered the R&S 1st grade for K last year but am glad I didn't do it -- it has been a wonderful, thorough review so far this year, but I think would have overwhelmed DD in K.

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Rachel, Jersey Mama to the Boogie, Peabody, and Bacon